Film and cameras that are all in one, commonly referred to as single-use or one-time-use cameras, have become well known. The one-time-use camera is a simple point-and-shoot type comprising a plastic main body part which supports a conventional film cartridge in a cartridge receiving chamber, an unexposed film roll in a film supply chamber, a fixed-focus taking lens, a film metering mechanism with a rotatably supported metering sprocket that intermittently engages the filmstrip at successive film perforations, a manually rotatable thumbwheel rotatably engaged with a film spool inside the film cartridge, a single-blade shutter, a manually depressible shutter release button, a rotatable frame counter for indicating the number of exposures remaining for picture-taking, a direct see-through viewfinder, and in some models an electronic flash. A pair of opaque plastic front and rear cover parts house the main body part between them to complete the camera. The rear cover part connects to the main body part and/or to the front cover part to make the main body part light-tight. A decorative cardboard outer box or label at least partially covers the camera and has respective openings for the taking lens, etc.
After each picture is taken with the one-time-use camera, the photographer manually rotates the thumbwheel in a film winding direction to similarly rotate the film spool inside the film cartridge. This winds an exposed section of the filmstrip into the film cartridge. The rewinding movement of the filmstrip the equivalent of slightly more than one frame width rotates the metering sprocket in engagement with the respective film perforations to decrement the frame counter to its next lower-numbered setting and to pivot a metering lever into engagement with the thumbwheel in order to prevent further manual rotation of the thumbwheel. Manually depressing the shutter release button to take another picture pivots the metering lever out of engagement with the thumbwheel to permit renewed rotation of the thumbwheel. When the maximum number of exposures available on the filmstrip are exposed, and the filmstrip is completely wound off the take-up spool and into the film cartridge, the one-time-use camera is given to a photofinisher who tears the outer box off the camera, separates the rear cover part from the main body part, and removes the film cartridge with the exposed filmstrip from the cartridge receiving chamber. Then, he removes the exposed filmstrip from the film cartridge to develop the negatives and make prints for the customer. At least some of the used parts of the camera may be recycled, i.e. reused, to remanufacture the camera.
Early models of one-time-use cameras tended to be less than compact and, therefore, were difficult to fit into one's pocket or purse. Thus, there has been a continuous desire to make one-time-use cameras compact. However, with more recent cameras that are compact and include an electronic flash, the relative closeness of the electronic flash and the taking lens can cause an undesirable phenomenon known as "red-eye" to occur. This effect causes the pupils of the eyes of a person being photographed to appear as red dots in a print made from the color negative.
To reduce the occurrence of red-eye during flash picture-taking, reloadable cameras have included a flip-up flash which is pivotally connected to the body housing of the camera to be flipped up from the body housing for use and flipped down for storage. When flipped up, the flip up flash increases the flash-to-lens distance and, therefore makes red-eye less likely to occur. However, some compactness of the camera is sacrificed.